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[zzedar]

So I just recently returned to DF after a long absence. I stopped playing just shortly before DF2012 was released, and I've been having some trouble adjusting to the new version. When I realized that it was possible to fine-tune which animals were trained, which were assigned to whom... I sort of fell in love with the new version. It took me a while to realize why all the children were unhappy. No clothes! The words "Dwarven modesty" are no longer a nonsense. Werecreatures are interesting. I was a bit disappointed to see that the large-gems-in-depot bug still hasn't been fixed.

Anyway, here's the reason I'm posting: I was reading about vampires on the wiki, and a thought occurred. Vampires don't need to sleep, right? So if you let dwarves choose their own bedrooms, a vampire should never claim one, making vampire identification easier. Or am I misunderstanding this? If this does work, it would have a major advantage over the methods listed on the wiki: those all require you to scrutinize each individual suspect dwarf, whereas this method allows you to go the other way around, easily getting a list of those dwarves who don't have a room.

[Pan]

Ooo he has a point there. But then again, I've never encountered vampires so my opinion on this matter has a rather low value.

[DanteThanatos]

AFAIK You're right.

Vampires do give themselves in some ways this one being one of the easiest.
They also don't drink giving them the "Haven't take a drink for some time" tag at the preferences screen.

Also...when they feed they feed only on unconscious targets,like sleeping dwarves. (Animals dont sleep but can fall unconscious, thus Vampires CAN feed from animals, it's just too damn dificult to be reliant on)

If the target is bigger than the vampire(Average sized vampire, large target-dwarf) the dwarf seems to survive.(I'm not too sure about this one but I've read this on the forums somewhere)

[zzedar]

Vampires do give themselves in some ways this one being one of the easiest.
They also don't drink giving them the "Haven't take a drink for some time" tag at the preferences screen.

Well, the advantage of this over the drink method (which was mentioned on the wiki) is that you have to check the preferences screen of each dwarf for that method. With the bedroom method you can go to any bedroom and 'a'ssign to get a list of which dwarves do and do not have bedrooms. Having gotten the list, you can then narrow it down further with those other methods.

See, the reason I'm posting this is because the wiki doesn't list this as a method for vampire detection. I wanted to get confirmation whether it works, and if it does I'll add it to the wiki. If it doesn't, that means I misunderstood something about the mechanics of vampires or room claiming, and I'd like to educate myself. Either way, somebody will learn something.

[Saiko Kila]

Someone should check it out, but with current low rates of vampire infestation (in my 250 strong fortress I had and still have only one vampire - a king) it may take some time to test, unless someone has a known not-noble vampire in his fort for a longer period. It may take months for dwarves to choose their bedrooms, I have experienced that.

[Garath]

it's true, but as mentioned it usually means waiting a couple of victims before all the others have reliably claimed bedrooms

[pi_Age]

I had a vampire dwarf and he had a bedroom. If it was not him who claimed, it was his wife (later, sucked her dry)... So this method will be ineffective if the vampire has a spouse.

[ZeroSumHappiness]

(Animals dont sleep but can fall unconscious, thus Vampires CAN feed from animals, it's just too damn dificult to be reliant on)

Not having tried this, but read the pinata thread it seems like if you were to hang an animal with broken legs it'll fall unconscious.  If you could get a very large predator in this state perhaps you could have a consistent feed source for vampires that doesn't die.

[Psieye]

Caveat: if it's a 'home-grown' vampire (well of unlife trick), then they'll have a room even without a spouse.

[Saiko Kila]

(Animals dont sleep but can fall unconscious, thus Vampires CAN feed from animals, it's just too damn dificult to be reliant on)

Not having tried this, but read the pinata thread it seems like if you were to hang an animal with broken legs it'll fall unconscious.  If you could get a very large predator in this state perhaps you could have a consistent feed source for vampires that doesn't die.

I tried unconscious pigs, chicken and goblin on my vampire, and he doesn't care about them. And he never fed when in my fort (3 years now). I made them unconscious by stabbing with a mechanized spear. Maybe some vampires just don't like animal blood. Can't test with so small population.

[Bordellimies]

If the target is bigger than the vampire(Average sized vampire, large target-dwarf) the dwarf seems to survive.(I'm not too sure about this one but I've read this on the forums somewhere)

I bet that someone is now going to breed big dwarves and test this.

[Garath]

(Animals dont sleep but can fall unconscious, thus Vampires CAN feed from animals, it's just too damn dificult to be reliant on)

Not having tried this, but read the pinata thread it seems like if you were to hang an animal with broken legs it'll fall unconscious.  If you could get a very large predator in this state perhaps you could have a consistent feed source for vampires that doesn't die.

read it further, the pinata thing doesn't work. The person who wrote it was assuming and speculating